Southern Rail says the walk-out will severely disrupt its services train services over the next two days with no train services on some of its routes and a much reduced service on others, which is expected to generally finish earlier than usual.

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The industrial action is bringing misery to commuters making their way to and from London Victoria.

The RMT is fighting plans by Southern owner Govia Thameslink (GTR) to turn conductors into “on-board supervisors”, with drivers taking over responsibility for opening and closing carriage doors.

RMT statement

RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said: "Despite all of the dirty tricks from the company RMT can confirm that the strike action is rock solid and determined again this morning across the Southern Rail network as we fight to put rail safety and access before the profits of the failed Govia Thameslink operation.

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"The resilience and solidarity of our members remains undiminished despite the threats and bullying thrown at them by GTR.

“The sheer pig-headedness of the company and the Government means that our members are being forced to take further industrial action this week in a bid to maintain a safe and secure service on Southern Rail. The blame for today's disruption is wholly down to GTR and Chris Grayling.

“Over the past few days we have seen repeated chaos on Southern Rail services that has shown yet again that they are simply incapable of running safe and reliable services.

Southern Rail commuters

"In light of the continuing public anger at the absolute state of the Southern Rail operation it is disgraceful that neither the company or the Government are prepared to engage with the unions and are continuing to attempt to impose DOO solely in the interests of putting profit before safety.

"RMT calls on the Government to force Southern back to the negotiating table instead of just jamming their heads in the sand."